Gervon Dexter drafted by Chicago Bears in second round
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida Gators defensive lineman Gervon Dexter was drafted 53rd overall by the Chicago Bears in the second round. Dexter is the second Gator to have his name called during the 2023 NFL Draft.
“Gervon is an ascending talent with an unlimited ceiling,” co-defensive coordinator Sean Spencer said of Dexter. “He wants to be great and will push himself on and off the field to get there. The Bears just got a steal. Couldn’t be happier for him and his family.”
Dexter finished the season with 55 tackles, 28 solo. He also finished the season with an interception, four tackles for a loss, four quarterback hurries, and four sacks.
Dexter did a lot for the Florida Gators
Gervon Dexter arrived at Florida new to the game of football. Dexter grew up playing basketball, where he was a well-known prospect on the AAU circuits. That allowed him to come in with a clean slate and no bad habits. His first defensive line coach, David Turner, spoke about that in 2021.
“I keep making the point: Gervon has only played —he played two years of high school and he played some last year. Three years and truly not three years because he didn’t play a whole lot last year. But he’s still relatively new to the game. Things are happening that have never happened before to him on the field. The good thing about him is, he’s going to always ask questions. He wants to be good, and that’s how he’s had to learn, kind of on-the-job training. The more he plays, the better he gets,” Turner said in 2021.
Out of necessity, Dexter played a ton of snaps. In 2022 only safety Trey Dean and linebacker Amari Burney played more snaps than Dexter. The interior defensive line played 637 snaps, an average of 53 per game. That’s a lot for a 300-plus pound man.
“Yeah, at 320 I don’t think I should be playing 70 snaps,” Dexter said at his Pro Day. “But it was something that I had to do. I embraced it and tried to get better. It helped me today. I think I did pretty good staying in shape. Maybe it was those snaps.”
His defensive line coach, Sean Spencer agreed.
“We’ve added some depth (in the offseason), which was kind of a problem last year. We had [Gervon] Dexter playing that many snaps and that’s not good for him and it’s not good for us. Now we have a lot more depth.”
